Wanda Sykes talks about her new show!

Wanda Sykes is well aware that she is a black woman with a point of view, but don’t go making a big deal out of it because she’s not. As she prepares to launch FOX’s The Wanda Sykes Show on late Saturday nights this fall, the out comic and new mother just wants to be judged by her abilities and her material.

“It’s a great opportunity and I just try and focus on the job and being funny more so than I’m a female,” during last week’s Television Critics Assn. Summer Press Tour. “I put funny first and I just happen to have boobs. … I’m a woman with a point of view. I tend to say things that we think but we won’t say out loud. I don’t think it’s inappropriate. Maybe it’s just honest. Authentic.”

So how did the new show come about?

“FOX came to me … and really wanted me to come by and talk about the show and I was like, ‘That’s not really what I want to do right now, especially network – I don’t want to do it,'” Wanda said. And then when we had Barack Obama running for president and that entire campaign, I felt like I really wished I had an outlet where I could, you know, go out there and speak on this on a weekly basis and be current. … I decided it was time to jump into it.”

“I got my start on The Chris Rock Show and we had a blast on that show. it was so refreshing and being on HBO, we did have the chance to say and do whatever we wanted to do and to be current. And I miss that, I miss that that’s not out there now. But I didn’t really want to do a talk show because I’m busy doing other things.”

Wanda will continue her role on the CBS sitcom New Adventures of Old Christine and is also taping a comedy special in Washington DC for HBO later this month consisting of stand-up material she has been working on for the past year-and-a-half or so.

“I’ll talk about, of course, the last time I was in DC [hosting the White House Correspondents Dinner] and move on to where I am now, what’s going on in my life. Of coures I’m going to talk about what’s going in with the economy, the new president but a large chunk of it is about me and where I am. I got married, I have kids and I’ll talk about that.”

On motherhood: “I’m loving it but it seems like when you become a mother … you forget what your life was like before you had kids and I think that’s a good thing because if you remembered what your life was like before kids, you’d probably want to shoot yourself. Life goes: ‘Forget about all the good times! It’s all about this now!'”

After the panel was over, I made my way over to Wanda and asked her a few questions:

Q. After The White House Correspondents Dinner there was some criticism of you. Are you afraid of that or do you welcome that kind of thing?

A. “I don’t welcome it but I’m not going to let it stifle me. I’m still going to say what I think. I’m not going to shy away from anything but I’m not welcoming controversy.”

Q. Does it stress you out?

A. Of course! That’s why we have alcohol.

Here are some answers I overheard to questions from other reporters:

Her reaction to Sarah Palin’s resignation: “I thought she was lime two years too late.”

Her thoughts on Paula Abdul leaving American Idol: “Actually I as about to leave The Wanda Sykes Show to try and get her job because $5 million aint too bad.”